Truth behind the Two Truths

What is the relationship between relative and ultimate truth, and how does understanding both support the path to enlightenment?

The topic of relative truth and ultimate truth is vast and profound.

Whether we speak of liberation or complete omniscience, these goals must be understood within the framework of the two truths. Likewise, the entire cycle of samsara, including the experiences of the six classes of beings and their repeated births and deaths, unfolds within the domain of these two truths.

We refer to these as relative truth and ultimate truth.

Ultimate truth refers to the true mode of existence of all phenomena, both external and internal. It is the essence, the fundamental nature, the underlying reality, and the true nature of all that exists.

Without relative truth, there can be no ultimate truth. If relative truth did not exist, ultimate truth would not exist either. Ultimate truth is not separate from relative truth; it is the very nature of relative truth—its pure, abiding essence. These two truths are interdependent. If one exists, so must the other. This holds for all things, without exception.

This is an undeniable truth.

When we begin to investigate the ultimate truth by searching deeply into the nature of things and looking again and again until nothing can be found, this mere "not finding" is not, in itself, sufficient to constitute ultimate truth. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate carefully and avoid falling into extremes.

By properly understanding ultimate truth, we also come to understand relative truth. It is because of ultimate truth—the emptiness of all phenomena—that concepts like karmic causality, the five paths, and the ten bhumis can exist. That is a certainty.

We often speak of the ground, the path, and the fruition. The ground is the two truths. The path is skillful means and wisdom. The fruition is the two enlightened bodies: dharmakaya and rupakaya.

As practitioners, what is our purpose?

It is to attain the result—the two kayas of enlightenment. To realize dharmakaya, we must realize ultimate truth. Rupakaya is attained through realizing pure relative truth. Thus, our goal is to actualize both.

These enlightened bodies, the dharmakaya and rupakaya, are profoundly precious and significant. They do not arise from unsuitable causes and conditions, nor do they appear without causes. They cannot be attained through prayer or aspiration alone.

How do these kayas arise?

They manifest through the path of skillful means and wisdom. For this reason, we not only need skillful means and wisdom, but a deep understanding of them is essential.

While wisdom refers to profound insight into emptiness, or supreme prajna, skillful means refers to bodhicitta, which encompasses love, compassion, loving-kindness, and more. Bodhicitta directed toward limitless sentient beings requires a compassion that is vast and extraordinary.

Yet in the experiences of us ordinary sentient beings, we neither understand this profound wisdom nor this vast compassion. We remain burdened by self-grasping ignorance, which obstructs our realization of supreme wisdom. By and large, sentient beings are caught in mistaken views and misguided conduct. Because of that, we confuse suffering for happiness, cling to the impermanent as though it were permanent, and, most of all, grasp at what lacks a self as if it truly were a self.

Under the sway of self-grasping, we perceive all things as truly existent. As a result, our views become distorted and our actions follow accordingly, and we continue to wander in samsara. Apart from temporarily subduing our enemies and protecting our friends, we are unable to cultivate genuine love and kindness toward all sentient beings without limit.

All of this falls under the domain of relative truth, which has two aspects: the confused and the unconfused. The confused relative can also be called the mistaken relative, or the level of hearing and contemplation. The defining distinction between confused and unconfused relative truth is whether or not one grasps at things as truly existent.

Virtuous qualities such as loving-kindness, compassion, and patience—which are qualities that give rise to bodhicitta—also arise on the relative level. The difference lies in their purpose, application, and intent, which are distinct from those of the confused relative.

There are several dimensions of dependent origination, such as the dependent origination of causality and the dependent origination of relativity. All phenomena arise through encounter, imputation, and dependence. Because of this, distinctions such as good and bad, past and future, happiness and suffering can appear.

The word "dependent" implies a lack of inherent independence. Therefore, the existence of all phenomena is not truly established. Things do not exist in the way we perceive them, as if they possess inherent essence or can exist independently, without relying on anything or anyone else.

This includes our bodies, our minds, our enjoyments, and all other things.
Because we are confused, we apprehend things as real and solid. From this misapprehension arises attachment. To eliminate this confusion, we must uproot self-grasping ignorance, which blinds us from seeing the actual nature of reality.

That which arises dependently lacks intrinsic existence. Dependent origination is the underlying truth of phenomena. It is the suchness—the natural state—completely free from conceptual elaboration.

Looking outward, we see the world, the Earth, as our home. This globe is composed of coarse and subtle particles, appearing due to causes, conditions, and elements. It is formed through the power of interdependent relativity. Likewise, our inner home—the body—arises from causes and conditions, such as the union of the parents’ sperm and egg. Even our consciousness arises and functions through dependent origination via encounter, imputation, and dependence.

Within this framework of dependent origination, there are causes and results, the complete unfolding of the five paths, the ten bhumis, and the attainability of Buddhahood. It is also within this same framework that all experiences of the six classes of beings arise. All of these are traversed and appear within the context of dependent designation and relativity. Ultimately, all of these culminate in the realization of the three kayas, or enlightened bodies.

Because self-grasping ignorance is deeply flawed, what we must abandon is the mind that clings to true existence and the self-cherishing mind.
Why must we do this? Because all beings want happiness and do not want suffering.

And yet, grasping at true existence can only bring us suffering. For the wandering six classes of sentient beings in samsara, the way things appear is not in accord with how they truly are. Grasping things as truly existent gives rise to attachment, aversion, ignorance, covetousness, ill-will, jealousy, wrong views, depression, and so forth. These emotions make us uncomfortable and only create suffering. All of this stems from distorted views.

If we truly understand the fundamental reality of phenomena, we see that things do not exist as we imagine them. They do not exist in the way we crave and cling to them. By understanding the dependent origination of relativity, we come to see that nothing has inherent nature. As this insight deepens, the attachment that comes from this sense of self naturally weakens.

Sometimes we think, "As Buddhist practitioners, we must give up all samsaric pleasures.” But this view—that everything must be renounced—is entirely unnecessary. What we must relinquish is not the outer forms of enjoyment, but the inner patterns of reification and self-grasping ignorance.

To do this, we need a body—a physical support for the path. We also need favorable conditions, such as the freedoms and advantages of a precious human condition. We need food, clothing, and even a good reputation at times. By maintaining this as a prerequisite, illusory Buddhahood can be attained. That is, we, as illusory sentient beings, can realize illusory Buddhahood.

We should also understand that the Buddha is not some being existing elsewhere. Realizing our own true nature—the tathāgatagarbha, or buddha-nature—completely purifies the causes of the kleshas, our afflictive emotions.

The imprints of self-grasping have to be removed by supreme wisdom, through reasoning and direct insight into reality. Otherwise, rejecting all samsaric conditions outright is not the right approach.

The ten bhumis, cause and effect, samsaric perfections, and the temporary practices of acceptance and rejection all arise on the basis of relative truth. Thus, when we speak of abandoning the relative, we mean abandoning the entrenched grasping that reifies an inherently true existence. That is what must be let go of.

And this letting go should not be for personal gain alone. If your motivation is only for yourself, your family, or your nation, then your mind remains not truthful. That mind is of a small outlook. Even if there is some truth in such motivations, they remain confined. Letting go must be an act of opening, of moving toward vastness. It should not be like discarding unwanted food.

When a truthful, vast, and kind mindset becomes evident, we begin to see the faults of self-grasping and reification. We also recognize the extraordinary qualities of a mind free from reification—supreme wisdom and compassion directed toward limitless beings. In this regard, temporary necessities are not to be rejected; they are essential requirements along the path.

In brief, relative truth can lead in two directions.

One leads to temporary happiness, such as higher rebirths as gods or humans, and ultimately to liberation and omniscience. The other leads to endless samsaric suffering, lower rebirths, and the accumulation of further causes of pain. In essence, one generates only the causes of suffering, while the other produces only the causes of happiness.

What determines both is the state of our mind—whether it is tamed or untamed. With a tamed mind, we can cultivate exceptional wisdom and compassion. With these, we progress toward liberation and omniscience.
With an untamed mind, we fall into self-grasping and self-cherishing, which leads only to experiencing confusion and suffering in samsara. Ultimately, the root of difference lies in whether the mind is clear or confused, tamed or untamed.